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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Lobbyists on K St. paid like CEOs on Wall St.

Top
Execs' Compensation Doesn't Stop With Salary

Most
top earners receive deferred compensation and bonuses, not just base salaries.

Most of the lobbyists listed below received deferred
compensation and bonuses in addition to their base salaries (just like
corporate CEOs do). They didn't get all of that money in their weekly
paychecks.

Like the private sector, trade associations (lobbyists) have been tying
overall compensation to incentive pay and other performance-related benefits.
That incentive in the private sector usually comes in the form of stock options,
a tool that isn't available to "nonprofits". Instead, associations use
bonuses and deferred compensation that vest over time. Both can be withheld if
an executive's performance falls short.

If a lobbyist can get the desired legislation passed through Congress that's
favorable to corporations, the lobbyist will get a bonus.

"This is how nonprofits can be competitive," said Charles
Quatt, founder of Quatt Associates, a management consulting firm. "The
incentives make up for the other income a trade association executive might have
gotten in the form of equity if he or she had taken a job at a publicly traded
company instead."

Bonuses at some of the biggest trade associations now average 35 percent of
an executive's base pay and can be 50 percent "or higher,"
Quatt said.

Example: Business
RoundtablePresident John Castellani's base compensation was $689,584, and he received
a bonus of $750,000 and deferred compensation totaling $4.1 million, including
retirement and other benefits.

U.S.
Chamber of Commerce President and Thomas Donohue received the largest
bonus of the Top 25: $2.55 million. His base pay was $1.09 million, and
his deferred compensation totaled $136,697. (No, it is not an agency of the
United States government, as some people believe...it's a lobbying group.)

An important caveat when it comes to deferred compensation is that the amount
must be reported to the Internal Revenue Service as part of an
executive's overall pay, even if the money is vested over several years. When
the executive finally collects the entire deferred compensation package, it's
taxed as capital gains, rather that regular income.

Castellani, asked how he feels about his salary, said: "I don't
determine my compensation; my board does. It was really their judgment as to
whether I am doing a good job or not."

Many organizations also give their executives so-called golden parachutes
when they leave. That money can make a CEO's pay exceptionally high. For
example, Marc Lackritz, the now-retired head of the Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association, received a $4.2 million cash
distribution when he left the Wall Street lobbying group. His total
compensation without that payout was $2.6 million.

Highest-Paid
Lobbyists* (Who Weren't CEOs)

Lobbyist

Title

Firm

Compen-sation

Leigh
Ann Pusey1

Senior
v.p., COO

American
Insurance Association

$1,158,156

Richard
Pollack

Executive
v.p., advocacy and public policy

American
Hospital Association

$1,153,202

Bruce
Josten

Executive
v.p.

U.S.
Chamber of Commerce

$1,139,290

Todd
Hauptli

Senior
executive v.p.

American
Association of Airport Executives

$1,009,962

Rick
Shelby

Executive
v.p., public affairs

American
Gas Assocation

$906,643

Dan
Danner2

Executive
v.p.

NFIB

$831,279

James
Ford3

Director
of government affairs

American
Petroleum Institute

$813,625

Alexander
Flint

Senior
v.p., government affairs

Nuclear
Energy Institute

$788,042

John
Dalton

President,
housing policy council

Financial
Services Roundtable

$765,423

Regina
Hopper4

Executive
v.p.

U.S.
Telecom Association

$755,837

*Saleries from 2008.1Now president
and of AIA.2Now
president and of NFIB.3No
longer works for API.4Now
president and of America's Natural Gas Alliance.

The
Top 25 Current And Former Executives

These are the highest-paid
leaders of Washington's biggest trade associations, professional societies,
think tanks, and interest groups. The first list includes chief executives
current as of March 30, 2010.

Current
Executives

Name

Title

Association

Total
Compensation1

1

John
J. Castellani

president

Business
Roundtable

$5,566,105

2

Billy
Tauzin

president,

PhRMA

$4,476,157

3

Scott
Serota

president,

Blue
Cross and Blue Shield Association

$3,993,225

4

Robert
D. Somerville

chairman,

American
Bureau of Shipping

$3,970,948

5

Thomas
J. Donohue

president,

U.S.
Chamber of Commerce

$3,777,092

6

Frank
Keating

president,

American
Council of Life Insurers

$2,933,527

7

Charles
H. Dallara

managing
director

Institute
of International Finance

$2,664,025

8

Thomas
R. Kuhn

president

Edison
Electric Institute

$2,549,956

9

Kyle
McSlarrow

president,

National
Cable and Telecommunications Association

$2,451,440

10

Charles
N. Kahn, III

president,

Federation
of American Hospitals

$2,334,770

11

Edward
L. Yingling

president,

American
Bankers Association

$2,291,462

12

Peter
H. Cressy

president,

Distilled
Spirits Council of the United States

$2,218,422

13

John
M. Damgard

president

Futures
Industry Association

$2,143,465

14

Frank
J. Fahrenkopf, Jr.

president,

American
Gaming Association

$2,080,581

15

Richard
Umbdenstock

president,

American
Hospital Association

$2,075,344

16

Mitch
Bainwol

president,

Recording
Industry Association of America

$2,033,072

17

Timothy
Ryan2

president,

Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association

$2,021,141

18

Glenn
English

National
Rural Electric Cooperative Association

$1,960,741

19

Karen
Ignagni

president

America's
Health Insurance Plans

$1,941,471

20

Steven
Specker

president,

Electric
Power Research Institute

$1,908,163

21

Tracy
Mullin

president,

National
Retail Federation

$1,858,577

22

Steve
Anderson

president,

National
Association of Chain Drug Stores

$1,834,074

23

Daniel
A. Mica

president,

Credit
Union National Association

$1,817,577

24

Gary
Shapiro

president,

Consumer
Electronics Association

$1,767,205

25

Steve
Miller

president,

American
Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

$1,735,639

1Includes
deferred compensation, benefits, and bonuses.2Started
in February 2008.

Former
Executives -This
list includes former executives who received compensation during the most recent
reporting period.

Name

Title

Association

Total
Compensation1

1

Marc
Lackritz

former
president,

Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association

$6,761,697

2

Frank
L. Bowman

former
president,

Nuclear
Energy Institute

$3,003,348

3

Marc
F. Racicot

former
president,

American
Insurance Association

$2,882,402

4

Byron
M. Cavaney

former
president,

American
Petroleum Institute

$2,694,867

5

Eugene
Upshaw

former
executive director

National
Football League Players Association

$2,510,301

6

Susan
Meisinger

former
president,

Society
for Human Resource Management

$2,315,416

7

Frederick
Meister

former
president,

Distilled
Spirits Council of the United States

$1,884,854

8

Pamela
G. Bailey2

former
president,

Personal
Care Products Council

$1,808,932

9

Myles
N. Brand

former
president

National
Collegiate Athletic Association

$1,721,813

10

William
T. Archey

former
president,

TechAmerica
(formerly AeA)

$1,648,324

11

Kenneth
Stern

former

National
Public Radio

$1,577,234

12

Andrew
Sharkey

former
president,

American
Iron and Steel Institute

$1,554,863

13

Philip
B. Boyer

former
president

Aircraft
Owners and Pilots Association

$1,549,245

14

Jordan
J. Cohen

Former
president

Association
of American Medical Colleges

$1,501,708

15

Jonathan
L. Kempner

former
president,

Mortgage
Bankers Association

$1,393,150

16

Daniel
Glickman3

former

Motion
Picture Association of America

$1,363,806

17

Jack N. Gerard4

former
president,

American
Chemistry Council

$1,346,467

18

James
B. Bramson

former
executive director

American
Dental Association

$1,151,371

19

M.
Cass Wheeler

former

American
Heart Association

$1,142,569

20

Todd
A. Stottlemyer

former
president,

National
Federation of Independent Business

$1,136,239

21

John
A. Venator

former
president,

CompTIA

$1,071,525

22

William
D. Novelli

former

AARP

$1,005,380

23

Calvin
Dooley5

former
president,

Grocery
Manufacturers Association

$871,458

24

John
Sofranko

former
executive director

American
Institute of Chemical Engineers

$846,196

25

John
A. Greco

former
president,

Direct
Marketing Association

$838,528

1Includes
deferred compensation, benefits, and bonuses.2Now
president and of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.3Now
president of Refugees International.4Now
president and of the American Petroleum Institute.5Now
president and of the American Chemistry Council.

It doesn't matter what a corporation pays in taxes as compared to
GDP, or how it's compared to any other index of measure (to skew the
numbers), it's what they actually pay to the U.S. Treasury
after loopholes (aka "deductions") that matters most. And
for the last 25 years corporations have actually paid
historically low taxes.

While today some corporations may have paid the maximum rate of
35% (when it was over 50% in the 1950s), many others paid ZERO, with
the average being only 18%.

And because corporations have been paying a
low effective corporate tax rate for decades, that didn't keep
them from outsourcing jobs overseas for cheap labor, but rather, it
did enable them to pay very excessive CEO salaries...who only mostly
pay 15% in federal income taxes on their capital gains.

3 comments:

A lobbyist can now tell any elected official: if you vote wrong, my company, labor union or interest group will spend unlimited sums explicitly advertising against your re-election. “We have got a million we can spend advertising for you or against you — whichever one you want,’ ” a lobbyist can tell lawmakers, said Lawrence M. Noble, a lawyer at Skadden Arps in Washington and former general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.

"Tom Donohue, the president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, made a record $4.7 million last year, at a time when the rest of the country was seeing high unemployment and falling wages. Donohue's pay package included a $3.6 million bonus. His compensation in 2010 was $1 million higher than it was in 2009, when he was the sixth-highest paid lobbyist in the country. In March, Donohue made headlines for saying that the compensation of public workers is 'over bloated' and their pensions are 'out of control.' Donohue's compensation was revealed in the Chamber's 990 tax forms, which became publicly available this week. The Chamber itself also did quite well in 2010, collecting a significant number of million-dollar donations."

"A new study finds that nearly 400 House staffers have moved from Capitol Hill to K Street in recent years, suggesting that recent efforts to curb the revolving door between lawmaking and lobbying are having limited effect. At least 378 of the 5,710 staffers working on the House side of the Hill at the end of 2009 have since left to become registered lobbyists, according to a report from the Sunlight Foundation, a government accountability group. Corporate America was the biggest beneficiary of this exodus, Sunlight found. Fully 80 percent of the 378 House staffers-turned-lobbyists are working for corporations, industry groups, or Washington lobbying firms with mostly business clients. On the other hand, nonprofits advocacy groups are only represented by 37 of these recent ex-staffers, the report noted. Only one works directly for a union group, although on K Street some lobbyists have labor clients."

Blogster-at-Large

Bud Meyers writes about the economy, politics, Social Security, corporate outsourcing, labor statistics, the REAL unemployment rate, taxes and tax evasion, government and corporate corruption, and the plight of the long-term unemployed.

Update: In 2016 Bud transitioned from Bernie Sanders (who was running as a Democrat) to Donald Trump (who ran as a Republican). But he doesn't trust either party. His previous posts may contradict how he feels right now for numerous reasons . . . he's "evolved" — and if Trump kills Social Security and Medicare, he'll evolve again ;)